MILWAUKEE — For the MLB-leading sixth time this season, Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara threw a complete game as he continues to beef up his Cy Young Award case.
But for the first time in those half-dozen outings, he was on the losing end of the decision as the Marlins were shut out by the Milwaukee Brewers, 1-0, on Friday at American Family Field.
Alcantara threw eight dominant innings, giving up just one run on five hits while not issuing a walk and striking out eight. The lone run he gave up came in the sixth inning, when Garrett Mitchell led off the inning with a single, stole second, reached third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a Rowdy Tellez sacrifice fly.
The problem? The Marlins’ offense was non-existent. Miami (65-92) had just four hits, all singles, in eight innings against 2021 Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes. Two of those hits were erased by double plays. Devin Williams pitched a scoreless ninth for Milwaukee (84-73), working around a Lewin Diaz leadoff single and walks to Jon Berti and Avisail Garcia to hand the Marlins their 14th shutout loss of the season.
Alcantara on the season has a 2.28 ERA over an MLB-leading 228 2/3 innings — the fifth-most in a season in Marlins history and 8 2/3 innings shy of Kevin Brown’s franchise record of 237 1/3 set in 1997 — and 207 strikeouts. He is the first pitcher in Marlins franchise history to have multiple seasons with 200 innings pitched and 200 strikeouts thrown and the first in MLB to do so in consecutive seasons since Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Jacob deGrom did so in 2018 and 2019.
